In
the case of Krantz v. Peerless Insurance
Company, No. 18-CV-3450, 2019 WL 1123750 (E.D. Pa. March 11, 2019 Leeson,
Jr., J.), the court granted a Motion to Dismiss a bad faith claim in a UIM case
and then remanded the matter back to state court.
In
this case, the UIM Plaintiff argued that the insurer improperly interpreted the
policy in refusing to pay full policy limits.
The Complaint alleged that the carrier relied upon an invalid and
unlawful set-off provision in withholding a substantial amount of the policy
limits.
However,
the court found that the Plaintiff failed to plead facts to show that this set-off provision was invalid, “or, more importantly, that [the carrier] knew or
should have known that it was denying the full amount of benefits based on an
invalid provision.”
The
court also found additional allegations in the Complaint to be conclusory and
lacking in other supporting factual allegations to make the averments plausible
under the pleading requirements in federal court. For example, the court faulted the following
allegations:
(1) The insurer did not make any good faith
offers to settle despite repeated demands;
(2) The insurer “failed to objectively and
fairly evaluate his claim”;
(3) The insurer “failed to promptly tender
payment of the fair value of the claim”; and,
(4) The
insurer failed to reasonable investigate the claim.
The
court concluded that the Plaintiff’s cursory allegations generally asserted
that the carrier lacked the reasonable basis for denying the Plaintiff’s claim
for benefits, “but do not provide any factual allegations from which the Court
could make a plausible inference that Defendant knew or recklessly disregarded
its lack of a reasonable basis for denying benefits.”
After
dismissing the bad faith count, the court found the Plaintiff’s claims no
longer exceeded $75,000.00 and, as such, the court remanded the case to the
Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas.
Anyone
wishing to review a copy of this case may click this LINK.
I
send thanks to Attorney Lee Applebaum of the Philadelphia law firm of Fineman,
Krekstein & Harris. This case was
found on Attorney Applebaum excellent Pennsylvania and New Jersey Insurance Bad
Faith Case Law blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.